LOS ANGELES — In the end, there was no argument for anyone else. Returning to the two-way status that made him such a unicorn, Shohei Ohtani snagged his fourth MVP award on Thursday, putting him in rare company indeed. He now is the only player to ever win TWO awards in each league, and trails only the dope-aided Barry Bonds in total MVPs by a score of 7-4.
The vote was unanimous, with Ohtani collecting every first place vote available. He easily outpaced runner-up Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies and third place finisher, the Mets’ Juan Soto.
Ohtani’s year was marked by consistency at the plate and a return to the mound. Offensively, his OPS (1.014) and OPS+ (179) were just a tick below his amazing 2024 (1.036/187). Add to that his breaking his own team record with 55 home runs, and driving in 102 from the leadoff spot, you get the picture of what his year was like. The only category that showed significant decline from his 2024 numbers was, of course, stolen bases. This year, having already become the lone member of the 50/50 club, Ohtani took his foot of the gas pedal a bit, swiping only 20 bags out of 26 attempts.
Of course, the reason for the decline in steals was that the dude had other gigs. Namely, being an elite member of an elite starting rotation. Though he got a late start in his return to the mound, once he finally got rolling, he was as good as anybody in baseball. A 2.87 ERA with 62 strikeouts in only 47 IP is testament to the kind of stuff Shohei had in his first pitching work in over a year. And, even more heartening, he got better as the year went on. After back-to-back shaky starts in August, he gave up only one earned run in his next four starts to finish the year. In September, his ERA was 0.00 over 14.2 innings.
He got dinged a couple of times in the postseason by the long ball (think Vladdy Jr. in Game 4 and Dante Bichette in 7) that elevated his postseason pitching numbers, but I’m sure the 18 inning game and the three days rest had something to do with that. The ten-strikeout, three-homer game against the Brew Crew was perhaps the best postseason game of all time, and the craziest thing about it was that, to be honest, it wasn’t that surprising. That’s just who he is and what he does.
In the wake of the win, Shohei was asked to rank the award among his accomplishments of 2025. He didn’t hesitate with his answer. “The biggest thing is obviously being able to win the World Series,” he said through his interpreter. “That’s first and foremost. It’s icing on the cake to be able to an individual award, being crowned MVP.”
So what does Shohei have planned for an encore? You know that he’s looking forward to being another year removed from his surgery, and chomping at the bit to get a full year of starts under his belt. I’m not sure the Dodgers will ever let him pitch enough to win a Cy Young, but if they ever did, I’m sure he’d win that, too.
As for Barry Bonds? You want to bet against him beating that record, too? I sure don’t.
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